Fall 2002 Newsletter

Fall 2002 Newsletter

No. 31/Fall 2002 Linda McKinnish Bridges, Interim Director Linda Mecum, Editor 336/758-3758 wst@wfu.edu
www.wfu.edu.Academicdepartments/ Womens-Studies
The Honorable Joyce Mpanga of Uganda, Africa, Visits Wake Forest University, Women’s Studies Program in October
The Women’s Studies Program welcomed the Honorable Joyce Mpanga from Uganda, to our campus on October 28, 2002. Mpanga, one of the first women in Uganda to receive a college education, recently retired after serving over 40 years in the Parliament of Uganda. She began her political career as the first woman appointed by the British Colonial Governor to serve in Parliament in 1960. She helped to establish the Ministry of Gender and Community Development in Rwanda. A former Secretary of State for Women in Development, for Education, and Deputy Chairperson to the Public Service Commission, she has been involved in promoting women and education for most of her career. In 1989 she was a leader in writing a constitution for a new government. The Constitution of Uganda ranks as one of the most gender sensitive government documents in the world. The Uganda Constitution requires that both men and women serve Honorable Joyce Mpanga and equally in all levels of government work. Dr. Linda McKinnish Bridges
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Upcoming Events
November 19, 2002 The World, The Text and The Witness: James Baldwin’s Secular Criticism Dr. Maurice Wallace, Duke University 4:30 p.m., Greene Hall Auditorium (partially sponsored by Women’s Studies) November 25, 2002 Cure: Stories of Healing Mind and Body, edited by Kristin Couse Women’s Health Book Club discussion 6:30-7:30 p.m., Women’s Health Center of Excellence Resource Center Building 2, Piedmont Plaza (co-sponsored by WHCOE and Women’s Studies; Colleen McDermott, Intern Leader) December 3, 2002, 12:15-2:30 February 3, 2003, 11:00-1:00 March 4, 2003, 12:15-2:30 April 7, 2003, 11:00-1:00 Mentoring Program Lunch Discussions Autumn Room, Reynolda Hall (partially sponsored by Women’s Studies) December 3, 2002 Racial Disparities in Pregnancy-Related Mortality Margaret Harper, M.D., WFUBMC 12:00 noon, Sticht (Women’s Health Center of Excellence) February 26, 2003 Layli Miller-Muro Director, Tahirih Justice Center 8:00 p.m., Wait Chapel (partially funded by Women’s Studies)
For more information about any of these events, please call 758-3758.
Observations and Challenges From an Interim Director of Women’s Studies Linda McKinnish Bridges
I assumed the position of Interim Director of Women’s Studies on August 23, 2002, at the request of Dean Paul Escott. I began this work by listening, reading, and thinking. I have had lengthy conversations with all members of the Steering Committee. I have read foundation documents. With the help of Linda Mecum, Administrative Coordinator, I have been able to maintain approximately 10-12 hours per week in the office of Women’s Studies beginning in the last week of August. Like many of you, I have spent a professional life time trying to understand the role of women in culture and in my particular discipline of theology and biblical studies; I have also spent what seems another life time trying to strategize and actively create change in those places of tremendous resistance to women. I have been an advocate for women in the places where women’s voices have been silenced. I have searched for knowledge of the ‘why’ things are the way they are and then have worked to institute change in policies and attitudes for institutions as well as individual women and men. In some of those places I have failed. In some other places, I have been successful.
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Glimpses of the Impact of the Women’s Studies Program
Dr. Stephen Boyd, Religion At a recent Steering Committee Meeting, Linda Mecum made a report that included statistical data concerning the history of Women’s Studies at Wake Forest University from 1987 to 2001. Here are interesting facts about aspects of the program that reveal some pretty significant things about the quality of our students, our faculty, and the impact of the program. In those years, 117 students have graduated with the Women’s Studies Minor. Of those, 10 graduated summa cum laude, 23 graduated magna cum laude, and 31 graduated cum laude. That means a total of 64 students, 55% of our minors graduated with honors; almost 30% graduated with high or highest honors. Several inferences might be made. The Women’s Studies minor has attracted a very high proportion of Wake Forest’s best students. Also from 1987-2001, a total of 10,046 students took women’s studies core courses, cross-listed courses, or first year seminars in the program. Of the cross-listed courses, the academic departments with the highest enrollments were: Sociology (3,538), Psychology (1,980), English (799), History (259), Religion (254), Humanities (130), Art (128), and Politics (124). In addition, 681 students have been involved in supervised internships in agencies throughout the community. The faculty involved in the program during this same period, share the same standard of excellence. Many of our faculty epitomize the Scholar-Teacher Ideal so highly valued at Wake Forest. In addition to serving on many community and professional boards and committees, members of our faculty have published books in the best university, trade and textbook presses in the nation. We have also been recognized as having some of the most engaging and innovative teachers on campus. 8 of the last 17 recipients of the Reid-Doyle Prize for Excellence in Teaching have been Women’s Studies faculty. As we prepare to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of our program, it is important that we take some time to look back at who we are and where we have been. It would be good for us also to assess some of the impact our students have had since they have left Wake Forest. So, we are going to collect information about minors and other students who have taken Women’s Studies courses, in order to find out what they have been doing in the world since graduating. We will share some of that in future issues of this Newsletter. If you are a former minor or a student who took Women’s Studies courses, please contact Linda Mecum at mecumlh@wfu.edu and share with her information about things you have been doing since graduation that are connected to things you learned in the program.
Dr. Rose Sackeyfio to Teach Women in West African Cultures, Spring 2003
Women’s Studies is delighted to announce that Dr. Rose Sackeyfio will be teaching a new course next spring. Women in West African Cultures will begin with an overview of the role and status of African women in traditional societies, examining four major spheres of indigenous life—marriage, economics, religion and politics. The course will explore models of study that represent regional, ethnic, language and religious diversity. It will also address emerging perspectives on the African women in transition, focusing on the feminist challenge, and development initiatives in modern African nationhood. Dr. Sackeyfio received her Ph.D from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. She also teaches at Salem College, UNC-G, and Winston-Salem State University.
WISE Sponsors
Love Your Body Day
Women’s Initiative for Support and Empowerment (WISE) sponsored a Love Your Body Day celebration on Tuesday, October 15, 2002, 7:309:00 p.m., in Carswell 111. A video screening and panel discussion of Body Image, Eating Disorders, and Womyn’s Health was well attended by students, faculty and staff. Lindsay Littlefield (’03) served on the panel and Anjali Garg (’05) moderated the discussion.
Academic and Leadership Award Recipients from Class of 2002
At the Honors and Awards Ceremony for graduating seniors held Sunday, May 19, 2002, William Gary Lowman received the Women’s Studies Program Senior Academic Award for his Women’s Studies GPA of 4.0 and Overall GPA of 3.850. Lee Ann Quattrucci received the Women’s Studies Senior Leadership Award in appreciation of her excellence and devotion to the pursuit of women’s issues. Each recipient received a check for $150 and a plaque. Their names were added to plaques displayed in Women’s Studies. A reception for graduating minors and their families was given in the main lobby of Tribble Hall, just outside the Women’s Studies office. Both are teaching elementary school this fall, Lee Ann in Winston-Salem and Gary in New York City with Teach for America.
Emily Hoar (‘06) , Women’s Studies Student Worker, reads educational article from Love Your Body display created in Tribble Hall by Lindsay Littlefield.
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Because I know about life as a woman in various educational institutions in the 70’s and 80’s, I can read between the lines of the Women’s Studies documents and hear and see the determined strength of a group of women, willing to work across the grain of establishment thinking. Your work has created new thinking spaces for students who have left these halls to create even more places of hospitality for others out there. You are to be applauded for the bold steps that you took at a time when only hair-line cracks were being seen in many of our disciplines and perhaps barely even visible in the institutional structures. I would like to list some areas for deeper reflection. I introduce these challenges as questions, for I really do not know the answer nor do I have the time to create new structures with you. Many of these
challenges come not from my own mind but from yours. What about our curriculum? Would it be possible for the foundation course to embody a true model of interdisciplinarity? Could there be standards of learning that we determine are essential for a minor in Women’s Studies? What about our minors? Could there be discussion of ways to mentor, to create job placement opportunities, to provide warmer places of hospitality in our office space and lounge, in our homes, in our lives for these students? Have we really modeled feminist pedagogy in our care for our minors? What about our governing structures? Are we operating in the most efficient ways for a mature program of work? Are there new shapes to our structure that might include the Women’s Health Center of Excellence, the Babcock School, Divinity, and Law? Does our gov-
ernance help or impede our work? What about our mission? Are we in a creative pause that speaks to a future direction with broader implications? Some of you have used words like “gender or cultural studies,” “Gender Studies,” “Feminist and Gender Studies.” Are we ready to include discussions of race and class? Are we ready to think and work with an international women’s focus? The final question is simply this: Are you ready to work? So much is already in place--space (room of your own), competent support staff, a strong budget, with interested alumnae benefactors, minors who keep coming but whose numbers ought to increase double fold, a concerned but very supportive Dean who will work with you to create new positive energies for the future. Women’s Studies is pleased to have been a part of the following events September 10, 2002 Women Faculty Mentoring Social 5:00 p.m., Autumn Room (Reynolda) (WHCOE) October 5, 2002 National Denim Day for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation WFU Campus (partial sponsor) October 11, 2002 A Celebration of Diversity Gay Straight Student Alliance Homecoming Reception 7:00 p.m., Greene Hall Atrium (partial sponsor) October 24-26, 2002 For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (African-American female drama; proceeds to local battered women’s shelter) 8:00 p.m. Scales Fine Arts Center (partial sponsor) November 1-3, 2002 Weep No More (Drama about domestic violence around the world; profits used to build shelters for domestic violence victims in Zimbabwe and India) SECCA (partial sponsor)
Faculty Congratulations
Dr. Cheryl Leggon, Director of Women’s Studies since January 2001, is now Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology. We wish her the best. Sharon Andrews (Theatre) attended the American Theatre in Higher Education Conference, San Diego, CA, in July 2002, where she performed as the mother of Rachel Carson in a reading of the David Mark Cohen award winning play In The Garden of Live Flowers. She also assisted in the development and bringing to campus of a new theatre piece, Belfast Blues, written and performed by TV, film and stage actress Geraldine Hughes, and designed by WFU Theatre Assistant Professor Jon Christman. Belfast Blues previewed at The Black Dahlia Theatre, Los Angeles, in July 2002. Dr. Anne Boyle (English) published Strange and Lurid Bloom: A Study of the Fiction of Caroline Gordon, Fairleigh Dickinson Press, in July 2002. She has developed a new course, Studies of Women and Literature: American Women Writers from 1880-1930. Dr. Boyle also has an ACE fellowship and has made her English 111 Writing Seminar, On Writing, a service learning course where students are tutoring at-risk students and AVID students in writing and reading at Northwest Middle School. Dr. Mary DeShazer (English and Women’s Studies) was awarded a one-year Reynolds Research Leave. She will return to WFU in the fall of 2003. Dr. Michele Gillespie (History) attended the Twelfth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, June 2002; Gender and the Dilemma of Difference session commentator. Co-organized German Moravians in the Atlantic World Symposium, April 2002; Gender and Piety session commentator. Invited lecturer, “Endeavoring to Seduce: Gender, Class, and Authority in Colonial Georgia,” Virginia Historical Society, July 2002. Co-edited with Susanna Delfino (University of Genoa) Neither Lady Nor Slave: Working Women of the Old South, UNC Press, 2002; includes Dr. Gillespie’s own essay, “To Harden a Lady’s Hand: Gender, Politics, Racial Realities, and Women Mill Workers in Antebellum Georgia.” Dr. Linda Nielsen (Education and Women’s Studies) has just signed a contract with McGraw-Hill to publish her third book, Embracing Your Father: Strengthening Your Father-Daughter Relationship.”
WOMEN’S STUDIES WELCOMES FIVE NEW MINORS!
Samantha Abelson (‘03) Anjali Garg (‘05) Megan Chappell (‘04) Rebecca Kousky (‘04) Amanda Sweetser (‘03) women went on to receive degrees in higher education. Mpanga was one of the three. During the harsh regime of military dictator Idi Amin (19711979), the Mother’s Union survived. Amin banished all women’s groups except the Mother’s Union, YWCA, and the Association of Muslim Women. In the late 1970s the National Council of Women was formed. In 1988 a Ministry for Women was formed in the Office of the President. From the beginning of the most recent leadership of the National Resistance Army and President Yoweri Museveni, women have made an important impact on the governmental structure of the country. The capable leadership of Joyce Mpanga has been largely responsible for this progress for the last 40 years.
Women’s Studies and Crosslisted Courses for Spring 2003
WST 100 A-H RAD: Rape Aggression Defense for Women WST 221A Women’s Issues WST 321A Seminar: Women’s Health Issues WST 359A Fathers and Daughters WST 377A Special Topic: Women in West African Cultures WST 377B Special Topic: Ecofeminism WST 396A Independent Study WST 397A Internships: Non-PREPARE only WST 397B Internships: PREPARE only AES 151 Race & Ethnic Diversity in America AES 232 American Jewish Experiences AES 310 Race, Class & Gender in a Color Blind Society COM 341 American Rhetorical Movements Since 1900 COM 370 Race, Class, Gender & Sexuality in the Media ENG 381 Studies in African American Literature HMN 285 Culture and Religion in Contemporary Native America HMN 357 Images of Aging in the Humanities HST 338 Gender in Modern America LAS 310 Special Topics: Race, Ethnicity & Gender in Latin American and U.S. Latino Culture and Society POL 229 Women and Politics POL 277 Feminist Political Thought PSY 265 Human Sexuality SOC 153 Marriage and the Family
To find out more about each course listed above— description, day/time of class, professor, and location—visit the Women’s Studies website at www.wfu.edu.Academic-departments/WomensStudies, or call the office at 336/758-3758.
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For example, if the President is a man, then the Deputy is required to be a woman; if the President is a woman, a man must serve as Deputy. In addition, Ms. Mpanga was instrumental in promoting Women’s Day on March 8 as a national holiday. Mpanga spoke to an audience of students and faculty in Pugh Auditorium. She provided a survey of the women’s movement in Uganda, a country of over 23.4 million people, with over 51% women, $350 annual income, and 3.6 billion dollars of international debt. The modern women’s movement in Uganda began with a group called the Mother’s Union, formed in 1945 by Mary Stewart, the wife of a bishop of the Anglican Church in Uganda. From this group, three
News and Notes is published twice a year—fall and spring—to report on Women’s Studies developments. We welcome comments and suggestions from our readers. If you prefer to receive our newletter via e-mail, please let us know at wst@wfu.edu
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